1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to neck and face shields and more particularly to neck and face shields especially adapted to be worn by a person wearing hair curlers and drying one's hair while sitting under a hood type hair dryer of a type commonly used in beauty parlors.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Many efforts have been made to solve the problem incident to the exposure of the face, neck and ear portions of a person being subject to heated air blown to dry the hair of that person after washing of the hair, usually with the hair in curlers, while the person is sitting under a hair dryer of the type commonly used in beauty parlors. The need is for shielding in one form or another of the face and neck of the person, without obstruction or with only minimal obstruction of the heated air flow through the hair being dryed, it of course being preferable in designing such a shield for the shield to have the capability of fitting various sizes of heads and hair arrangements, particularly when the hair of the person whose hair is being dried is rolled on large curlers, as is common practice.
Considered the most relevant of prior hair drying shields known to me, in terms of similarity to the design of the shield of the present invention, is the shield disclosed in Stovall U.S. Pat. No. 2,327,678, which involves a circumferentially adjustable, annular shield, which is placeable around the head of the user and which is essentially frusto-conical in form, the location of the shield on the head of the user being determined by a ribbon or thread 16 led from an inboard location on the shield laterally across the top of the head of the user then around the inner portion of the shield to a rearward point inboard on the shield, then forwardly across the top of the head of the user to a juncture or joining point with the first pass of the ribbon or thread, such as shown in FIGS. 1 and 3 of the patent. As indicated, and as shown in its FIGS. 2 and 5, for example, the Stovall shield is essentially frusto-conical in nature, and there is no support of the shield in any of its outboard portions except by reason of its frusto-conical configuration. In use of such a shield, however, a frusto-conical configuration is inherently disadvantageous in that, when so worn, a compromise must be made between the amount of hair of the wearer which is left above the shield and the spacing of the outer edge of the shield from the lower edge of the hair dryer. Also, since only the inner edge of the shield is supported, by contact of such inner edge with the head of the wearer and by the cross thread or ribbon 16, the Stoval shield tends to be deflected downwardly by the blown air flow out through the gap between the outer edge of the shield and the lower edge of the dryer so that much of the heated air does not serve the intended purpose i.e., the drying of the wearer's hair.
More or less frusto-conical air drying shields are also disclosed in Thompson U.S. Pat. No. 1,283,357, Torricelli U.S. Pat. No. 2,666,922, Sherwood U.S. Pat. No. 2,447,776 and Heisterberg U.S. Pat. No. 2,241,855, and a similar shield of an essentially planar nature is disclosed in Womack U.S. Pat. No. 2,226,956. Also of interest is the head piece disclosed in Turman U.S. Pat. No. 2,893,403 which involves a curler protecting head piece having a lower adjustable band encircling the head, but without any shield extending therefrom. Of interest, also, is a letter to the editor authored by Maurice Gershman under the heading "SELF-ADHERING NYLON TAPES", which appears in the Oct. 19, 1958 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association, Volume 168, Number 7, at page 980.
Also of interest, having been cited on this basis in the course of the prosecution of my parent patent application Ser. No. 769,350 are Thompson U.S. Pat. No. 1,283,357, Merlino U.S. Pat. No. 1,741,327, Morgan U.S. Pat. No. 1,750,937, Caster-Udell U.S. Pat. No. 1,764,912, Varell U.S. Pat. No. 1,900,002, Hodgman U.S. Pat. No. 4,133,052, and McKee U.S. Pat. No. 4,428,079.
Additional prior art patents, also of general interest, cited by me in said patent application Ser. No. 769,350 are Howard U.S. Pat. No. 971,503, Streuli U.S. Pat. No. 1,593,042, Hughes U.S. Pat. No. 1,858,331, Dicken et al U.S. Pat. No. 2,424,744 and Coleman U.S. Pat. No. 3,235,882.